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Eat, Pray, Love

The Good Read: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Photo from the web

Yes, you are right! This book is really familiar because it is a hit and it is now a major motion picture (2010). I know all of you guys know that this book was about finding one's happiness, surviving the loneliness and understanding things that came after a certain relationship (or life, in general) turmoil.

I, myself, came from countless of it too; and like many of you, I have experienced loneliness and the deepest of it in all possible ways it can be felt. It was indeed hard and finding happiness is kind of subtle but one thing I have learned was - happiness is a choice and though there are times you want to surrender and give up everything because it is just too heavy, there will always a part of you wanting to survive. Simply because you want to experience that certain happiness again and you want to see the bright side.

There are no permanent things in this world. All good things come to an end, so does bad things. It will be tougher, to the extent you don't have anything to give anymore. To the extent that you feel that it is always bound to end and that you are no better. You are always stronger than you think you are. It is not everytime that you will find yourself inside your room or your apartment figuring things out - how it ended, how it will be from this day on and how you will find happiness again. We all know the answers to all our questions, well, sometimes. We just don't want to acknowledge it. We are too afraid to know that we had a fair share of b*llsh*t. We are too scared to acknowledge that we had our own mistakes. We are too conscious to even forgive ourselves.

Living alone - away from family, being a busybee and not in any committed relationship, made me realize that I can manage to be who I want to be; indulging my own flaws, accepting my shortcomings and forgiving myself for those. Safe to say, I'm done figuring why things didn't work out for me. I stopped worrying. I stopped questioning. Instead, I'm at the point where I want my life to offer me what it has to offer and see how it will go if I work hard on things I want to happen.

I'm not afraid to be anywhere. I let go all of the attachments that kept on bothering me and preventing me to be where I want or what person who I want to be. I have a strong support system (my family and friends) and I guess, it will work out just fine. Things happened because they are bound to happen and I always believe that no matter how painful things might be, there's always a reason why I ever felt that way; why it happened; why I can survive and why I really should, for all I could.

Then, later on, you would definitely know and realize, you are now ready (again) to whatever and whoever.

Here are some of the quotations and lessons from the book that helped me all throughout:

Travel is worth any cost or sacrifice.

That's the thing about a human life - there's no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would have turned out if any variables had been changed.

Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.

So be lonely. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map out of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings.

Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.

It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.

You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight.

The mind is restless, turbulent, strong, and unyielding. I consider it as difficult to subdue as the wind.

"You are after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions."

The other problem with all this swinging through the vines of thought is that you are never where you are. You are always digging in the past or poking at the future, but rarely do your best at the moment.

In the present is the only place to find Him, and now is the only time.

That's just your ego, trying to make sure it stays in charge. This is what your ego does: It keeps you feeling separate, keeps you with a sense of duality, tries to convince you that you're flawed and broken and alone instead of whole.

Meditate on whatever causes a revolution in your mind.

There are only two questions that human beings ever fought over, all through history: How much do you love me? and Who's in charge?

If something is rubbing so hard against you, you can be sure it's working on you.

"The world is afflicted with death and decay, therefore the wise do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world." In other words: GET USED TO IT.

If I could sit through this nonlethal physical discomfort, then what other discomforts might I someday be able to sit through?

You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you're gonna wear everyday.

The rules of transcendence insists that you will not advance even one inch closer to divinity as long as you cling to even one last seductive thread of blame.

God dwells within you. As you.

Your treasure - your perfection - is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart.

You can still live there. You can still live on that shimmering line between your old thinking and your new understanding, always in state of learning.

Stop looking for answers in the world. Just keep coming back to that center and you'll always find peace.

Organize how things go, in order to keep things from falling apart.

The hardest part of your life is behind you now.

Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.

We must get our hearts broken sometimes. This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.